Event Logs

How to view and delete Event Viewer Saved Logs in Windows 10

How to view and delete Event Viewer Saved Logs in Windows 10

Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) is an advanced tool in Windows 10/8/7, which displays detailed information about significant events on your Windows computer, which can be helpful when troubleshooting problems and errors with Windows and other programs. If you are a regular of Event Viewer and you frequently view many .evt or .evtx files in Event Viewer, you may have noticed that a large number of files end up accumulating under Saved Logs. In this post, we will see how to view and delete Event Viewer Saved Logs.

Event Viewer Saved Logs

If you are a regular of Event Viewer and you frequently view many .evt or .evtx files in Event Viewer, you may have noticed that a large number of files end up accumulating under Saved Logs. These entries remain even if you delete the original .evt and .evtx files.

These Saved Logs are stored .xml format, in the ExternalLogs folder,  which is hidden. To view this folder, first through the folder options, uncheck the hidden and system files options, and navigate to the following path: 

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Event Viewer\ExternalLogs

You will see the .xml logs here. The contents of this folder are hidden so you must turn on Show Hidden Files and turn off Hide Protected Operating System Files to see them.

To open a saved event log, start Event Viewer. Now, in the Actions menu, click Open Saved Log and navigate to and select the Saved Log from its location.

You can delete the Saved Logs from the Actions Box. But when you delete the log from the Event Manager's Actions Box, you are only removing it from the console tree; you are not deleting the log file from the system.

If you wish you can delete the logs from your system, you will have to navigate to the mentioned ExternalLogs folder and delete them manually. Make sure that the Event Viewer is closed when you delete these files.

Windows Event Viewer Plus, a portable freeware app that lets you view Event Logs faster than the default inbuilt Windows Event Viewer, may also interest you.

Related reads that are sure to interest you:

  1. How to view Event Logs in Windows 10 in detail with Full Event Log View
  2. Use Event Viewer to check unauthorized use of Windows 10 computer
  3. How to create Custom Views in Event Viewer on Windows 10
  4. Enhanced Event Viewer for Windows from Technet
  5. Event Log Manager Free event log management software
  6. Monitor Windows Event Log Files Checking with SnakeTail Windows tail utility
  7. Event Log Manager & Event Log Explorer software.
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